The invention concerns a process for refrigerating, and especially for quick freezing, of products such as foodstuffs and industrial raw materials, by means of a refrigerant liquid such as a cryogenic fluid.
There are generally two principal techniques in use today for quick freezing of foodstuffs: dip freezing and tunnel or spiral freezing.
Dip freezing has the considerable disadvantage of a relatively high consumption of cryogenic fluid, whereas tunnel or spiral freezing requires substantial investment and the systems used generally require a great deal of space.
In addition, both of these existing techniques have a comparably limited flexibility, and it is difficult to adapt a particular system to varying quick freezing requirements.